Eskom is bludgeoning business to death, says councillor in handwritten note to De Ruyter

A fed-up ward councillor in Ekurhuleni hand delivered a note to Eskom chief executive Andre de Ruyter at Megawatt Park.

In the handwritten note, drafted during load shedding at torchlight, DA councillor Simon Lapping pleaded with the beleaguered power utility’s boss to take more action, more swiftly. Lapping said companies in his ward have been decimated by load shedding.

Lapping’s ward comprises large parts of Isando and Jet Park industrial areas.

In his letter, the councillor asked Eskom to leave the industry alone: “I plead you to reconsider load shedding in our industrial areas. Job losses are causing enormous hardship. The current situation is unsustainable. I cannot bare the daily requests for food from people who have lost their jobs.”

Business is battling to keep the economy going, he lamented, and added that sustained load shedding will come at a tremendous human cost.

He said: “To put it bluntly, no electricity equals no jobs equals no production equals starvation equals a failed country.”

He suggested that, for a period, households may have to carry the burden of load shedding, with additional hours in the dark, to save the economy.

He wrote: “I understand that leaving industrial areas out of the load shedding schedule would probably mean additional hours of load shedding in residential areas and that this may be a huge sacrifice for households, but I am begging you to reconsider the load shedding schedules in order to eliminate load shedding for the industrial areas so that we can keep the engine of industry and our economy running.”

Lapping did address what he thought must be an untenable situation for Eskom’s leadership: “I do understand that you and your board of directors have been given a poisoned chalice and that you are probably having sleepless nights over how to fix Eskom.”

He called load shedding a pandemic: “I do understand that you and your board of directors have been given a poisoned chalice and that you are probably having sleepless nights over how to fix Eskom.”

He added: “I have seen many businesses crash and burn due to the draconian measures imposed during the Covid Pandemic sowing much destruction in its path. I now see a new pandemic occurring called load shedding or “Blackouts” and it is just as destructive as its predecessor. As it stands, industry is trying to recover from the first pandemic which was not man made. The second one, Load shedding is manmade.”

Also Read: Eskom to continue Stage 2 load shedding throughout the week

Load shedding has been a constant companion for South Africans and despite two new power stations, which have been fraught with challenges and outages, the country is still in the dark. Eskom’s daily load shedding announcements have become par for the course and Lapping fears that rumours of over one hundred days of load shedding may come true.

Therefore, he felt compelled to draft and personally deliver the letter: “I had to do this, even if only symbolic, as I doubt the surly receptionist would have passed along the letter. Eskom is bludgeoning business to death. And you cannot flog a dead horse.”